Monthly Archives: August 2013

Priyanka Chopra is happy to have made her way to the top in Bollywood without the help of any godfather and the actress says she is finally at a place where she is being offered challenging roles

The 31-year-old former Miss World, who is doing commercially viable films like “Zanjeer“, “Krrish 3“, “Gunday” and Mary Kom biopic, says she finally understands the industry. “I have never been to any acting school and didn’t have any clue when I joined.

I didn’t have a godfather or boyfriend to guide me. I was 18-year-old and it took me a few year to understand the industry.

“I am very fortunate that in the last few years, I have reached a point where filmmakers can see me playing all kind of role. So, now I want to have a mix bag of all kind of cinema,” Priyanka told. In her two upcoming films – “Krrish 3″ and “Zanjeer“, the focus is more on the male leads but Priyanka decided to take up the projects because she liked the script.

“‘Krrish‘ and ‘Zanjeer’ are both boy films. But I had no apprehension about being a part of these films because I love to watch them. I am very spontaneous and I do films if I like the script. I don’t consider other things.” The “Barfi!” star is the brand ambassador of NDTV’s initiative ‘Our Girls Our Pride’.

Priyanka says her upbringing helped her to understand the campaign in a better way. “The cause of the girl child has been very close to my heart. My mother is a gynaecologist and my father was a doctor. Since my childhood, I have seen my mother with women and children and she has been a huge influence in my life also.

Our sex ratio is 840 girls out of 1000 boys, which is really absurd,” said Priyanka, who is also the Goodwill ambassador at UNICEF. Priyanka, however, wants to keep her movie career and her charity work separate.

Asked whether she would like to take up the cause in her films, the actress said, “No, that would be very unfair. Movies are entertainment and they are fiction. What I do as a person is very different to what I do as an actor. I don’t think it is right to put that kind of pressure on movie business.

Nobody watches such films. Let’s be realistic and not be delusional about it.” Priyanka, who now has a budding international music career, is also looking forward to the release of Disney’s animated film “Planes”. “I am lucky to be a part of Disney and I think it is every girl’s dream to act in a film by them. I am really excited for ‘Planes’. It will release on August 23 in India.”

Empowerment of the girl child has always been a subject close to Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra, who has now associated herself with Our Girls Our Pride – a new campaign to create awareness about issues such as nutrition, education, health and female feoticide in the country.

The 31-year-old was here Monday to launch the campaign by NDTV and natural resource group Vedanta. Priyanka is its brand ambassador.

Praising the tagline, Priyanka told: “I think it’s a brilliant tagline. Our girls are our pride. Our nation worships women in the form of goddesses. We come from a nation where mother, daughter, sister and wife – every form of woman is reverred. “

“But it’s really sad to see how that India has started treating its girls, ” she added.

Dressed in a cherry red semi-formal western suit, the multi-faceted star looked chic and her style statement definitely oozed confidence.

Quoting the 2011 census, as per which the child sex ratio in India stands at 840 girls per 1000 boys, Priyanka said she is “shocked”.

“If you don’t have a girl child, how will you progress, ” she said.

Apart from spreading awareness, the NDTV-Vedanta Our Girls Our Pride campaign also aims to raise funds to make a positive impact on the lives of girls.

To drive the momentum for the cause, the channel will also join hands with government departments, NGOs, schools and private organisations.

Shahid Kapoor may be out of the public eye, but out of sight does not necessarily translate into out of mind.

He’s back with Rajkumar Santoshi’s Phata Poster Nikhla Hero. And going by the trailers, the film promises to be a laugh riot. There is also Prabhudheva’s Rambo Rajkumar, where he stars alongside Sonakshi Sinha.

Interestingly too, the actor’s fan page hit 1.8 million likes within a day of going online.

The reigning Khans, Kumar and Kapoor might want to keep their eyes trained on the chocolate boy hero, who has shed the image with his rugged act in Kaminey.

Shahid remained undeterred despite Mausam and Teri Meri Kahaani not doing well at the box office. In fact, he took the time of review his body of work and focus more on content-driven cinema.

Now that he is working with two of the most sought-after directors in the country, you can tell that it is a fresh chapter in his career, not just for him but for his fans. With the trailers and songs of the upcoming Phata Poster Nikhla Hero being well-received, the actor is definitely on a roll!

“Rohit and Ajay have a very beautiful jodi. I don’t think anything like this can be made. A franchise of three films (‘Golmaal’ series) that too so successful. I think it’s a record of sorts,` SRK, who worked with Shetty in superhit `Chennai Express`, said here.

`The kind of franchise ‘Golmaal’ is, it is the first of its kind in our country. The best thing is everyone plays different characters. I think that is very, very special,” he added

“He just keeps doing these small things everyday, which means a lot to me because small things later on become big things… it could be a hug, a smile on his face, and it could be seeing him happy,” she said.

Sunaina was diagnosed with cervical cancer almost five years back, which she fought and overcame.

Southern actress Trisha Krishnan, a long-time People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India supporter, has written to Chennai Mayor Saidai Duraisamy asking him to scrap plans to roundup 30, 000 dogs and confine them to pounds.
“I respectfully urge you to scrap the plan to round up as many as 30, 000 dogs from the streets and imprison them in 15 new pounds in Chennai. Warehousing dogs, even if they are sick or old, for the rest of their lives is extremely cruel, ” said Trisha in her letter to the mayor.

“Chennai has used dog pounds in the past, and this approach failed to control either the dog population or rabies. Removing dogs from the streets leaves their territories vacant, which results in an influx of other dogs from neighbouring areas, ” she added.

“Locking up dogs like prisoners will never end Chennai’s animal overpopulation problem. I respectfully urge you to solve the problem the smart and humane way by stopping it at its source. Please focus Chennai’s efforts on an aggressive animal birth control and anti-rabies programme, ” wrote Trisha.